Bournville once offered a model of economic and social relations based on Quaker
values, ‘benevolent patriarchy’ and the enforced stability of the British Empire.
The codes of conduct have gone which for many years governed relations between
the men and women who worked for Cadbury, although the gendered division of space
is still clearly visible in the architectural detail and the designation of areas
for work and leisure. Today, the territory between Boumville train station and
‘Cadbury World’ is marked out with Cadbury’s corporate purple on signs, doorways,
lamp posts and railings.

On our first visit, we became interested in the large ornamental pond which had
been the focus of George Cadbury’s ‘Women’s Recreation Ground’ in the period
when the Suffragettes used purple to identify their movement. In spite of its
location in an architectural conservation area, the pond had suffered years of
neglect; it had been drained and was being used as a tip for garden and builders’
waste. We learned that the pond was scheduled to be filled in and turfed over.

We arranged for the pond to be repaired, the paved surround to be replaced with
newly quarried stone, and for new fountains to be installed. Cadbury”s filled
the 37,000-gallon pond for us by diverting the water supply from their factory
one night. We worked closely with Cadbury’s chief food scientist to formulate
and produce a liquid solution of food-grade purple dye, which the scientist poured
into the pond for us. Although it was non-toxic, the dye blotted out the light,
preventing photosynthesis in a suffocating extension of the corporate identity.
The water in the pond grew dark, translucent so that it was impossible to judge
its depth, and reflective so that its surface mirrored the surrounding garden
and the viewer.

In spite of these reversals, Utopia played the part of a high profile ‘gift’
to Cadbury Schweppes which was popular both with their employees and with the
public. This drew the company into a situation whereby the antique pond — symbol
of old-time philanthropy which was about to have been destroyed and erased in
a cost-cutting exercise — could not quietly disappear without considerable loss
of face. To a corporation poised between the pressure to conserve its historic
tokens of benevolent paternalism, and the demands of its shareholders in today’s
globalised ‘free’ market, we hope this may have given pause for thought.